But seriously... I would take the AT4040 (i have one) over the C3 in a second (but that's just me). I've A/B'd the two of them, and I thought there was an obvious difference. RNP and RNC are both excellent choices.... I have an NTK on loan right now, but it hasn't really gotten me excited... It's fine, and I've only done a bit of experimenting with it, but for the time being, I've really been liking the 4040 better. Soon, when I've got some downtime, I would like to give the NTK a good run for it's money before I give it back in a few weeks. I don't know anything about the Summit peice.

Assuming that this is your first LD condenser and preamp/compressor purchase, the AT4040 + RNP + RNC should make for one pretty decent channel that you will be happy with on a number of sources including vocals and acoustic guitar... Plus, the RNP is 2 channel, so once you buy another mic (and probably another RNC), you can do stereo recordings and more....